Jaguar won’t just save the manuals, it’s set to resurrect several. The F-type sports car launches next spring with an eight-speed automatic, but a high-level source at Jaguar tells us that a stick will be introduced later on. We get the impression that the manual may be deployed just for a particular engine or trim level, rather than as an across-the-board option. It also wouldn’t surprise us if only the enthusiast-targeted F-type coupes were offered with the manual, and not roadsters.

Better still, the F-type isn’t the only Jag with a stick in its future, our source says: At least one car planned for the all-new Jaguar platform currently in development also will offer a manual gearbox. That’s just the kind of circumstantial evidence we need to imagine a 3-series–sized Jaguar sedan, which has otherwise not been confirmed.

Is this all antithetical to Jaguar’s aristocratic pastiche? Sure. But Jagophiles will recall that the company has offered plenty of cars with with manual transmissions, including two in the past decade: the Ford-based X-type and six-cylinder S-type.